Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., accompanied by fellow members of the Congressional Black Caucus, express disappointment in the Supreme Court’s decision on Shelby County vs. Holder that invalidates Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act on June 25 n Washington. (J. Scott Applewhite, Associated Press)

What some of the nation’s political writers are saying about the Supreme Court’s decision on the Voting Rights Act:

“Come and walk in my shoes”
The Supreme Court has stuck a dagger into the heart of the Voting Rights Act. Although the court did not deny that voter discrimination still exists, it gutted the most powerful tool this nation has ever had to stop discriminatory voting practices from becoming law. Those justices were never beaten or jailed for trying to register to vote. They have no friends who gave their lives for the right to vote. I want to say to them, “Come and walk in my shoes.”— U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., Special to The Washington Post

Voters rights will be weakened
The full magnitude of the Supreme Court’s decision in Shelby County v. Holder has yet to be understood, but it is deeply troubling. The inevitable impact will be to weaken voters’ rights at a time when election-driven efforts to suppress those rights in certain populations — for partisan political gain — have increased exponentially. It will be more difficult to prevent states from discriminating against voters on the basis of race. State legislators will be encouraged to see what they can get away with, and race-based incidents of discrimination will increase.— Gregory B. Craig, Special to The Washington Post

Roberts ended the civil-rights era
The civil-rights era ended June 25 — or at least that’s what the historians will say about the U.S. Supreme Court’s 5-to-4 decision to strike down Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 as unconstitutional. Congress enacted that law — one of the two crown jewels of the civil-rights movement — because blacks were being denied access to the vote through unfair state-imposed tests in the still-segregated South. By striking down that law as an outmoded infringement on states’ rights, the court has flipped the rules once and for all: The justices, and not the elected Congress, now decide what remedy is needed to effectuate the most basic right in a democracy.— Noah Feldman, Bloomberg NewsRead more…

If there were an award in Colorado politics for the best quotation of the week, it would surely go to Rep. Robert Ramirez, a Republican from Westminster.

In explaining his opposition to a bill that would have allowed illegal immigrants to receive in-state tuition, Ramirez told The Denver Post’s Tim Hoover that he “actually had people saying that because I was Latino, I should vote for it. And I told them straight up, ‘That is the most racist comment I’ve ever heard in my life.’ That’s basing what I should do on my skin color or name.”

Of course Ramirez is right. Those who demand conformity of political views within ethnic groups are expressing racist sentiments, even if they are themselves members of minority groups. They are also indulging in a brutal form of intellectual bullying meant to ostracize and intimidate the target.

David A. Savage’s article regarding Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas wrongly disparages his character by implying he has failed to fulfill his oath to “do equal right to the poor and to the rich.” Contrary to the article’s implications, Justice Thomas is not permitted to “sid[e] with underdogs in disputes with more powerful governments or corporations” based on his personal opinions or personal experiences. Under the United States Constitution, Justice Thomas’ job is to apply the law to the facts of the case. Read more…

Vincent Carroll is The Denver Post's editorial page editor. He has been writing commentary on politics and public policy in Colorado since 1982 and was originally with the Rocky Mountain News, where he was also editor of the editorial pages until that newspaper gave up the ghost in 2009.

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